KYIV — Ukraine’s leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived for his second Oval Office meeting with Donald Trump armed with two secret weapons: a golf club for the American president, and a letter for his wife Melania.
The golf club was a symbolic gift, with the Ukrainian president’s office saying on Tuesday morning that it had been given to Zelenskyy to pass on to Trump by Kostiantyn Kartavtsev, a junior sergeant who lost his leg in the early months of the Russian invasion while saving his comrades in battle. “Golf became part of Kartavtsev’s rehabilitation,” Zelenskyy’s office said.
Kartavtsev recorded a message to Trump, who is an avid golfer, asking him to help Ukraine and bring about a just and lasting peace.
Zelenskyy also presented Trump with a letter written by his wife Olena Zelenska to the U.S. first lady, expressing gratitude for Melania Trump’s efforts to appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin to return 20,000 kidnapped Ukrainian children to their relatives.
“Let me thank your wife. Because she sent a letter concerning our children, and my wife, the first lady of Ukraine, gave her the letter,” Zelensky said as he handed the letter to Trump on Monday.
Zelenskyy, for his part, didn’t leave empty-handed: Trump recorded a video thanking Kartavtsev for the golf club, and gave Zelenskyy a symbolic set of keys to the White House, according to the Ukrainian president’s office.
Zelenskyy’s White House charm offensive came after a disastrous first meeting with Trump in the Oval Office in February, when the U.S. president and his deputy JD Vance berated the Ukrainian over his decision not to wear a suit, for correcting Trump, and for a perceived lack of gratitude for American support, among other things.
Keen not to avoid a repeat of those humiliations, Zelenskyy arrived in the U.S. backed by a squad of European leaders — and wearing a suit (albeit with a military twist). The sartorial choice, which POLITICO first revealed, presented a compromise between Zelenskyy’s insistence that he would not wear a traditional suit while leading a country at war, and his deference to his American hosts’ preferences.
Zelenskyy made sure to repeatedly thank Trump as the two leaders addressed reporters and didn’t argue when Trump again errantly claimed the U.S. has allocated $300 billion in aid to Ukraine. The U.S. spent a total of €114.63 billion helping Ukraine between Jan. 22, 2022 and June 30, 2025, according to the Kiel Institute.
Zelenskyy’s efforts appear to have worked.
Trump bigged up his meeting with Zelenskyy and broached the U.S. playing a role in providing security guarantees to Ukraine after a peace deal. While Trump did appear to change his mind about a ceasefire being necessary before peace negotiations between Zelenskyy and Putin can be held, he didn’t mention the nightmare scenario for Kyiv of being forced to swap large chunks of the heavily fortified Donbas region that it holds for slivers of Moscow-held land.
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